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MOON is unlike traditional lunar globes that uses 2D photographs or illustrations of the Moon.

1. it is a truly accurate 1/20 million replica of the Moon featuring all the craters, elevation and ridges in accurate 3D.

2. it has a ring of LED lights that revolves around the globe, constantly illuminating the correct face of the moon and recreating the lunar phases as seen from Earth.

The combination of the 3D terrain with a light source is what makes it unique. By projecting the light onto the Moon, all the craters, ridges and elevations are brought into relief by their shadows. This recreates the lunar features as we see them from Earth.

MOON has 3 different modes:

Manual mode - Rotate the sun light yourself and set the lunar phase that you would like to see.

Demo mode - Observe a complete synodic month in just 30 seconds.

Live mode - Experience the actual lunar phase happening at a given moment. Stay in this mode and observe the globe changing phases in rhythm with the actual Moon in the sky. One full rotation (Lunar synodic month) will take approximately 29 days, 12 hours, 44 minutes and 2.80 seconds.

Why MOON?

Thanks to NASA, we have access to beautiful sets of space images but most importantly to incredibly accurate data. Modern technology such as 3D printing allows us to create intricate objects from raw data. Traditional lunar globes are still using flat images (photographs or illustrations) mounted onto a sphere and do not take full advantage of the data.

The data is available, the technology is there, so why not make a 21st century version of the lunar globe?

The project started from a personal interest in the Moon and has now grown to an obsession in designing the most accurate and detailed lunar globe possible.

How accurate is it?

MOON is the topographically accurate version of the Moon using some of the data gathered by the team of the Institute of Planetary Research (German Aerospace Center) working on the NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter mission. On Kickstarter, we are offering the MOON with the Sun at the scale of 1/20 million (ø173mm, 6.8 inches) and a bigger lunar globe alone without the Sun at the scale of 1/11,5 million (ø300mm, 11.8 inches).

Both of them are highly accurate and their craters can be observed in their full glory. The ø300 mm lunar globe displays more details due to its size in relation with the resolution of the 3D printer.

The North and South pole are slightly less accurate and this is due to the limitations of 3D printing. The mold is made out of two halves and this allows us to remove the cast without damaging it. There is therefore inevitably a very slight visible line at the junction of those two. We have decided to use it as a feature and have therefore placed it precisely through longitude 90ºE and 90ºW which distinguishes the Near side (visible from Earth) from the Far side (not visible from Earth).

The Lunar globe

In order to create the lunar globe, Oscar contacted the team at the Institute of Planetary Research and they very kindly gave him access to a piece of their huge database. The data used are DTM (Digital Terrain Model) and are constructed from stereo images. Countless hours have been spent working on the file in order to achieve the correct scale of terrain, make it spherical and compatible for a 3D print.

Creating the accurate 3D model and printing it in 3D.

One
full Moon was 3D printed in order to become the MOON's master (the one the molds are then made from). After several tests with different 3D printers, materials and techniques, an industrial SLS nylon printer was used with a layer thickness of 100 microns. Oscar took a job with professional mold makers to learn the craft of making the perfect cast.

Creating the mold and rotocasting

The globes are rotocasted from hard polyurethane resin in a custom machine that we built ourselves. Each of them are carefully pigmented in order to get a moon-like colour.

The computer

The LED light ring moves around the globe, displaying the exact lunar phase of the real Moon and Sun.

Designing and building the MOON computer

In order to achieve the accuracy needed to track the sun’s movement over long periods of time Alex and Peter designed, built and coded a custom MOON computer. Its real-time clock and gearing system make sure it is perfectly in sync with the actual Moon and Sun’s positions. It has a simple analogue button interface which makes it a pleasure to operate.

Custom built MOON computer

Specifications:

Keeps real-time record of the actual moon and sun position

64 KB of memory

3 modes of operation

High precision motor

Precision motor position feedback system

Steel and aluminium frame construction

Made in the UK

They specified the MOON computer to have the same 64 KB memory capacity power capacity as the computer that took Apollo 11 to the Moon in 1969!

After many lighting experiments a ring light was chosen with the exact same diameter as the MOON object - this best replicated the sun’s light in space.

Why are we doing a Kickstarter?

This project has been 4 years in the making. So much time, research, effort and expense has been put into it. This is a 100% self initiated project and we are planning to keep it this way.

Different prototypes

Right now, we have only 1 fully finished and working prototype and we are on Kickstarter in order to produce the first batch of 50. By supporting this Kickstarter campaign, you will contribute towards making the most accurate lunar globe, and most of all you can get your own version of the MOON!

MOON team

From left to right: Alex Du Preez, Oscar Lhermitte, Peter Krige

This is us! Our Mission Control Center is based in East London. Oscar has his own design studio and gets involved in lots of exciting projects ranging from industrial design and consulting to photography, art direction and curation. Peter and Alex are working under the name Kudu. They focus on technology led projects and specialised in the development of new electronic products.

How will we use the funds?

Design is finished. Design for manufacture is finished. Electronic and mechanics are finished. We have obtained quotes for all the parts. All that is missing now are the funds to do the final tests and start the production of the first 50.
Production will include: Build of 2nd rotocasting machine, creation of new molds, final test with MOON computer, production of all the necessary parts, Moon casting, parts assembly, additional rewards, packaging, etc.

The ORBITER, version 1

Project Timeline

We have looked at this closely and set a date we know is realistic for us. We are also offering the MOONs with different shipping dates in order to avoid disappointment.

Below is the breakdown of our timeline:

April-May: Kickstarter campaign

May-June: follow up with backers, incorporate potential feedback from backers, preparing the production of the "small rewards", artwork finalised, planning execution plan depending on amount of orders

July: shipping of some small rewards, final testing with electronics, 1st final prototype for testing

August-September: 2nd set of final prototypes for testing, building of 2nd rotocasting machine, ordering of the different components, shipping of second set of rewards.

September-January: start manufacturing and shipping of MOON to you.

Press

Interested about the project and want to write about it? We'd love to answer all your questions. You can access the full press pack here and email us at this address: hello@moonproject.space

Thank you

THANK YOU! It’s been a long journey and we appreciate all the support from our backers.

We've had many friends who have been involved one way or another and they all deserve to wear the team patch. A massive thank you to the Sidekick Creatives crew: Philipp Figueroa, Arne Zacher and Anisha Peplinski (+Yoav Reches, Tommaso Lanza and Molly Anderson even if they have not been involved at all). Frank Scholten and the rest of the team at the Institute of Planetary Research and German Aerospace Center for the amazing work they are doing, NASA for the LRO mission and being such a great source of inspiration, Stina Gromark for the best graphics ever (Logo, typeface, graphics on MOON and on rewards), Justas Medeisis for his amazing contribution to the MOON computer code, Hal Watts for being in the original team and then having to concentrate on "more important" things, Flavien Berger for the dope soundtrack, Nicolas Jullien for the kick-ass website, Jonathan Rowley with Digits2widgets for being an early supporter, Arthur Lhermitte for the long chats, Phil Brown and everyone at Other People’s Sculpture, William A Adams for the tip, Molly- Simon-Emma-Antonia for the flat. Dominic Gordon, Daniel Charny, Gareth Owen Lloyd for the Machines Room, Nick Paget, Jon Marshall, Peter Cadogan, Marcus Hope.

Risks and challenges

This is our first self-motivated Kickstarter campaign, however we have actually all been working on crowdfunding campaigns for the past 4 years. Oscar’s first one was in 2012 with a product he designed, the Albatros bookmark. This campaign was a fantastic learning curve and created the understanding for all that it takes to run and complete a successful campaign. A few months later, Oscar started Sidekick Creatives LTD with a few friends where they help other creatives to successfully get their projects funded on Kickstarter. Since then, he has been involved in more than 20 campaigns. Alex and Peter are qualified engineers and have been involved in many successful product launches and Kickstarter campaigns.
They run a design studio called Kudu that has helped develop and deliver some of the most successful UK tech campaigns over the last 3 years. These include Hackaball, Beeline and BentoBio. In fact Peter and Oscar first worked together for the Touch Board’s Kickstarter campaign. Peter was working for Bare Conductive and Oscar made the Kickstarter video for them. Both TouchBoard and Sidekick Creatives LTD got nominated 2014 Design Of The Year by the London Design Museum. We know what it takes to run a Kickstarter and especially how to wrap the project and send you the rewards. All the costs have been well overlooked, and we have set the shipping date realistically within our capacity. All will be done to make sure the deadline is met, however in the case of unforeseeable delays, we will naturally keep you up to date.

1/11.5 million scaled lunar globe (ø 300mm, ø 11.8 inches). Rotocasted polyurethane resin, individually numbered with certificate of authenticity. Comes with a base made out of jesmonite and a certificate.